‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life’ A French Romantic Comedy at the PBS SoCal Cinema Series

Filmmaker Laura Piani’s love of cinema started with watching comedies like “The Shop Around the Corner” (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) and “The Apartment” (Billy Wilder, 1960). She even stopped going to school as a young teen, too obsessed with discovering Paris’ Latin Quarter’s many theaters. Laura then became a bookseller at Shakespeare & Company nearby during her film studies. Every bookshop is a theater, but Shakespeare & Co was always more than that to her. An Anglosaxon sanctuary in the heart of Paris’ Latin Quarter and a unique venue, where hundreds of poets and writers have been welcomed since the 1950’s. This bookshop became her own haven and later, the main inspiration for her film.

Immediately following the screening, Deadline’s chief film critic Pete Hammond, who can also be seen on PBS SoCal's Must See Movies, moderates a pre-recorded Q&A with filmmakers Laura Piani and Camille Rutherford.